Recep Tayyip Erdogan Re-Elected As Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won a new five-year term after securing outright victory in the first round of a presidential poll.

Election authority chief Sadi Guven said the president “received the absolute majority of all valid votes”.

Erdogan had declared himself the winner before the official results were announced. But the opposition cried foul, claiming that state media and the election commission had manipulated the results and saying it was too early to be sure of the outcome.

With his victory, Erdogan will gain sweeping new powers when he resumes office. He narrowly won a referendum last year to transform the country’s parliamentary system to a powerful executive presidency, in what his critics called a blatant power grab.

There were another four candidates on the presidential ballot, none of whom appears to have won more than 8.4% of the vote.